I've been using this service for the last couple of weeks and I wanted to pass this along to Bogleheads who like to go to the theatres.

It's pretty simple. You pay $10 a month and get a MoviePass debit card in the mail. You can see an unlimited number of 2d Film but no more than once a day at any theater practically. [excluding premium movie theaters] Around my neck of the woods a movie ticket is like $10-14 ticket and I usually go to at least 2 films a month so this is a no-brainer. I am a naturally skeptical person so I was looking high and low for a catch, but I have not found one.

I guess I have no idea how this will be sustainable for the company, but I will milk this as long as I can.

If I had to guess, I think it is a two-fold punch behind this.

One, concession stands is where theaters make their money. So if there is more traffic coming to the theaters, that translate to more people buying food at the concession stands. By easing off the ticket prices (in my area, it's about $10-$14 per person) in the form of a monthly subscription, I can see the decision process of going to the movies easier. It shifts spending money from tickets sales to concession stands. Theaters would love this!

Two, the monthly subscription helps the set it and forget it principle for consumers. At first, I can see the average customer use this in the first few months trying to go to the movies at least once a month to get their monthly subscription's worth. Once the novelty wears off, I can see people forgetting about it but still paying the subscription or forgoing going to the movies until a blockbuster comes out. I think that's where the company makes their money -- when people don't go but still pay for the subscription. That is where they make their money because they don't spend to buy your ticket but you pay them for having the option of going to the theaters almost anytime you want.

Downside? They will still get you on the 100x markup on the popcorn and soda
Kidding aside - looks like a great deal (although my local theater doesn't participate).

I should mention that on the bottom of the page you can enter a zip code and see participating theaters. This card has worked at all the theaters around me, ask me how I know

Yup - tried that. That's how verified the theater we normally go to isn't listed - probably because it is considered a Lux-theater.
I could drive a bit further to go to one that is covered - but now I've grown used to the nicer theater.

The downside for me is having to go stand in line, pay for over priced food and beverages for the privilege of sitting in a uncomfortable seat where my feet stick to the floor to watch a movie with a dozen people in front of me more interested in talking and looking at their smart phones than the movie which is generally turned up way too loud to attempt to drown out the people talking.

For a dollar less per month, I can get as many movies as I can watch (one at a time) mailed directly to my house using Netflix services.

I ordered the card 8/31 and have now been waiting over a month to receive it. The roll out of the new, lower priced subscription was seriously bungled. There are some people who ordered the card almost two months ago and still haven't received it. Some others ordered it a couple of weeks ago and already have.

I got my card about 3 weeks after I joined and I've used it a couple of times. My impression is that it's pretty much as they say it is. One movie every 24 elapsed hours is fine with me. I haven't been much of a movie goes the last couple of years due to high theater prices but the Moviepass gets me past that hurdle (I'm cheap). My live-in is a channel-flipper/fast forward viewer at home so that disrupts watching things at home for me. Maybe I'll loosen up the purse strings and go for the popcorn etc at the theater eventually but that has always seemed like an extravagance to me since I started earning my own money years ago. I'm looking forward to making my own double-features, a bargain matinee (my dime) and a regular show (moviepass) but I haven't come across a compatible pair of movies yet, may need to use two theaters a couple of blocks apart for that.

I've heard AMC is pushing back on this, but I see it as a win/win. Eventually, the theaters will be fuller on average and the admission cost will go down below the monthly premium. The theaters should take the opportunity to improve the experience inside the theater (better seats, better concessions, etc.) and charge a premium for it.

This service is pretty new and it's still really small. In that situation, the service might be a truly great deal for frequent moviegoers. For the moment. As this thing scales though, it might not continue with such favorable terms.

I'm not clear on their full business model, but what I read said they load money onto a debit card that you can use at the theater. So the theaters are still getting paid full admission for every movie. But that would mean Movie Pass absorbs the excess costs on every single customer that goes more than once per month. That's potentially some very expensive customer acquisition. According to the MPAA's statistics, 11% of the population are "frequent" moviegoers (1 or more times per month) and this minority accounts for half of all ticket sales. They will be the ones buying this. How are they going to make up all that revenue? In light of those statistics, I don't see how this model could possibly work for very long at $10 a month. They would need to rely on non-frequent moviegoers subscribing and then not going (gyms get away with that but only because of guilt and optimism) or finding other sources of revenue. Higher concession sales is a possibility but they would need to convince the theaters to cut them in on some revenue sharing (and of course theaters could implement such a strategy without Movie Pass being involved). Their model actually seems inherently flawed in that as long as they're paying full freight to the theaters they will probably suffer adverse selection at any price point. Possibly they will pull it off with the classic tech play of accumulating user data and selling targeted advertising?

Personally, I only go to maybe 5 movies a year. And I would have successively less interest in each additional movie. (Transformers 6? No thanks). There are tons of classic films I would love to see in the theater, but those are rarely screened in most places.

So how does this work for most theatre chains (AMC, Century etc) that are not in their "e-ticketing" list of theatres?

Is my understanding correct:
1) You purchase $9.99/mo subscription from moviepass.com
2) They mail you a debit card in ~3 weeks. Your subscription starts from the day you receive the pass.
3) You download the moviepass app on your android/iphone, login to it.
4) When you arrive at the theatre, you scan show times and "check-in" to the show.
5) You purchase a ticket using their debit card within 30 minutes of check-in.
6) Enjoy the show.

Is my understanding correct? I am confused because their FAQ has questions of changing credit card on account, etc.. I hope there are not too many hoops to go through such as using your card, saving the receipt, and claiming refund, etc..

I read a USAToday (I know) article a while back. Apparently this was founded by a former Facebook/Amazon/some other amazing company guy. He flat out said in the article that it'll be a loss on the face for them, but they'll eventually sell the data they collect to interested parties. I'm guessing he meant viewing preferences, etc.

I can't even make it to the theater once a month currently, but otherwise I'd be all over this.

So how does this work for most theatre chains (AMC, Century etc) that are not in their "e-ticketing" list of theatres?

Is my understanding correct:
1) You purchase $9.99/mo subscription from moviepass.com
2) They mail you a debit card in ~3 weeks. Your subscription starts from the day you receive the pass.
3) You download the moviepass app on your android/iphone, login to it.
4) When you arrive at the theatre, you scan show times and "check-in" to the show.
5) You purchase a ticket using their debit card within 30 minutes of check-in.
6) Enjoy the show.

Is my understanding correct? I am confused because their FAQ has questions of changing credit card on account, etc.. I hope there are not too many hoops to go through such as using your card, saving the receipt, and claiming refund, etc..

Yes - works just as you described. I am currently a member and really enjoy it so far.

I signed up for this when they first announced the 10 dollar plan, but have yet to receive anything from them. Perhaps it didn't go through as I never got an email acknowledgement either. Anyone else sign up and not get it?

I signed up for this when they first announced the 10 dollar plan, but have yet to receive anything from them. Perhaps it didn't go through as I never got an email acknowledgement either. Anyone else sign up and not get it?

Due to the overwhelming demand, I had to wait a few weeks, but I got 2 email confirmations. They were charging people's credit cards when you signed up. If you don't see a charge, I suspect your sign-up didn't go through.

Looked great when I read a news article in late August about the $10 pricing. Went to their site and downloaded the app only to find that their servers were crashing. We decided to wait almost a week (thought that would be enough time for them to upgrade their backend). Signed up, paid, and still waiting about 5 weeks now to get my card.

I have a feeling they are intentionally delaying the roll out because they had far too many subscribers. Give the first time enrollees a chance to burn out on buffet style movie watching and then add in more users as they get the second month's revenue from the initial members that are now slowing down on their movie watching.

The CEO was actually an executive with Netflix and Redbox not Facebook nor Amazon. So, he does have some experience with how to run a game plan for a subscription style budget movie service.

The articles I read seem to indicate that they initially were partnered with AMC and ran a "study" to determine movie viewing habits. The CEO wanted to cut the price based on Redbox and Netflix experiences and AMC did not. Additionally, it is alleged that AMC plans to roll out their own service soon but they cannot stop moviepass users unless they ban all Mastercards. They claim, the "all you can eat" movie watching dies down after about 2 months so they can sustain bare operating margins on that, while as another poster stated, they will sell movie viewer data. They also want movie theaters to "revenue share" with them based on the idea (supported by their study conducted with AMC) that moviepass users increase movie going by about 100% over pre-movie pass and increase concession purchases by 125%.

Since the local theaters near me don't have the problems of sticky floors, dirty chairs and rude patrons - We will be gladly using this pass very frequently. Right now, we watch about 1 movie per month at the theaters for most months and about 3-4 during the best viewing times. We often see a movie come out and think "not worth paying for a movie ticket, we'll see it as a rental". Now, we are more likely to view a good majority of those "maybe we'll rent it" movies in the theater instead. The AMC theaters around us all have nice recliners at regular ticket prices.

We go to the movies about once a month. Our mojo is an afternoon lunch and movie date, or possibly after work and then out to dinner during the week. We never go after 6pm...therefore never sit in a crowded theater, wait in line, or pay more than $6.50 for a ticket.

Honestly I think we'd be hard pressed to find more than 1 movie per month that looks decent enough to actually go to a theater to watch it. And our local theater is nice and walkable from our house.

isn't the end-game for a lot of these services acquisition? get it going then sell themselves to amc, cinemark etc. or they end up running the back end tech for a major brand's all-you-can-watch service. plus maybe they keep the rights to sell user data to keep their own pockets full.

I've been using this service for the last couple of weeks and I wanted to pass this along to Bogleheads who like to go to the theatres.

It's pretty simple. You pay $10 a month and get a MoviePass debit card in the mail. You can see an unlimited number of 2d Film but no more than once a day at any theater practically. Around my neck of the woods a movie ticket is like $10-14 ticket and I usually go to at least 2 films a month so this is a no-brainer. I am a naturally skeptical person so I was looking high and low for a catch, but I have not found one.

I got my card about a month ago. It works as advertised. There's no 3-D, which I hate, no iMax, which I don't have locally. So, it's perfect. It worked in my home town at the major theaters. It worked in NYC where a ticket (weekday) would've cost me $17.

My understanding is that movie theaters don't choose to participate. It's entirely on MoviePass to decide. There has been some public movie theater opposition, which I don't understand since they're getting full price tickets.

The financials have to be 'set and forget' users and user data. Plus an increase in prices in a year, that 'set and forget' will eat or those who see the value, will pay. Personally, I would have paid $25 for this and probably not have gotten the value out of it.

Can you buy your ticket BEFORE you get to the theater? Our problem is when we show up(early albeit even) at the theater to buy tickets(in person) many times they are sold out or only marginal seats are left(if any at all) now that everything is "online".

Can you buy your ticket BEFORE you get to the theater? Our problem is when we show up(early albeit even) at the theater to buy tickets(in person) many times they are sold out or only marginal seats are left(if any at all) now that everything is "online".

According to their site, you can buy any show on same day. So you can buy a late night ticket in the morning.

Yeah, I just do not see how this is sustainable.... The CEO thinks that people will buy the pass and then enough customers who watch 1 or fewer movies per month will balance out and cover all the people watching 1 every day/week/etc.

From time to time, we may partner with companies whose products we believe will interest our Users. In conjunction with these partners, we may send promotional announcements and/or serve web-based advertisements to our customers on their behalf. You can go to the “Manage email subscriptions” page under “Your Account” and request that your name be excluded from these mailings. In addition, we may offer joint promotions or programs that will require personal information to be shared with third parties. For example, we may partner with companies that offer incentives, such as frequent flyer mileage awards if you sign up or otherwise utilize our service. In fulfilling these types of promotions, we may share your name and other personal information.

Yeah, I just do not see how this is sustainable.... The CEO thinks that people will buy the pass and then enough customers who watch 1 or fewer movies per month will balance out and cover all the people watching 1 every day/week/etc.

I do not see how this ends well.

If their share of the tickets purchased becomes high, they will have leverage to lower the ticket cost. I suspect the theaters won't mind since they are selling more concessions.

Yes, they have to be 4 separate accounts. I'm not sure how it would work for younger kids without access to the mobile app. That may be something you would want to clear up before signing up

That may be one way to recover some costs. If A family of four buys two MoviePasses and goes to the movies more often but has to buy more children's tickets as well as concessions, the theater is benefiting from significantly higher revenue and this outfit is out a relatively small amount of money.

Selling the data is very profitable. It allows studios to better gauge what frequent movie goers (I.e. those who sign up for the service and go to the theaters) want to see. You are not obligated to see any movie - only the movies that interest you. By mining the data and breaking it down based on your demographics, it is very lucrative and informative for the studios. I am sure the CEO who was involved with Netflix would be familiar with that. Frankly, it is amazing what companies will pay for data - of all varieties.

I agree with posters above, I think the margins for most theaters are in the concessions. Most movie theaters around me have tickets (not on sale) for under $10 - even for evening showings and I live in the DFW area. You can even find some nice ones for under $7 in the evenings and under $5 during the day. However, the popcorn, soda, and candy add up fast. We also have a lot of free movie days - which are just BOGO free.

Last point - I listened to a podcast last year that discussed the importance of data to movie studios. They really want it to help steer their productions and cut down on the “misses” that happen. It also helps them prioritize which genres/directors and stars with limited resources. I can see them making up the “difference” or shortfall of whatever the service does not make.

BTW - I think ATT mobile customers get a buy one, get one free every Tuesday at participating theaters - just FYI.

Yeah, I just do not see how this is sustainable.... The CEO thinks that people will buy the pass and then enough customers who watch 1 or fewer movies per month will balance out and cover all the people watching 1 every day/week/etc.

I do not see how this ends well.

considering the longer term play is the value of the data and how data focused the company is, i think it's safe to assume they modeled this out pretty substantially before rolling it out. i'm not saying it's guaranteed to succeed, but the price point was not arbitrarily just decided upon. there are also many other ways they can monetize the business.

it could be equally as silly of someone to think it's a good idea to pour billions of dollars into a website that allows people to make free personal profiles and share information, photos, and other stuff with their friends, and say they're going to make money from the data.

Received my MoviePass last week and have been seeing a movie almost every day since. The process is fairly painless to get your ticket, just check in on the app and then use your MP debit card. This is a fantastic deal--although I'm not sure how they will go about monetizing this product.

Just to clarify, movie theaters are not involved in this. They get paid a full price ticket by Movie Pass every time a Movie Pass user buys a ticket. How will *MoviePass* make money is the question, not theaters.